Michael Craft Desert Summer

Desert Summer

Michael Craft

St. Martin's, Aug 2005, $23.95, 288 pp.

ISBN: 0312334230

Former Broadway director Claire Gray heads the Theater Department of the relatively new Desert Arts College in Palm Springs, California. She currently is hosting a summer workshop, which will culminate with the production of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca, based on the play, not the movie.

Her boss, college president Glen Yeats asks Claire and the head of costuming Kiki Jasper-Plunkett to attend a party he is hosting so that he has friends with him when his second ex-wife Felicia arrives to cause havoc over a landmark Santa Barbara house she gained in the divorce settlement. Felicia can live in the home, but cannot sell the property though it lies on choice real estate. Not long after Felicia showed up in all nasty regalia, she is found dead from poison. Detective Laren Knoll strongly suspects Glen killed his ex; Glen turns to Claire, who recently solved the Lara case and two other mysteries, to prove his innocence (see the three previous seasonal Desert tales).

DESERT SUMMER is an enjoyable amateur sleuth mystery starring a likable protagonist and a strong support cast. The storyline is fun to follow as all evidence points towards Glen as the killer so that even Claire and Kiki, who think highly of him, and the audience have no doubt Felicia pushed him over the edge. The tale develops the key players early on so that when the author pulls twists and red herrings the cast and the audience are fooled. This is one author who knows his craft.

Harriet Klausner